Paleoecology Final Paper Assignment

 

The primary goals of this course include understanding the fundamental concepts in paleoecology, coming away with a working knowledge of how to “do” paleoecology, appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of paleoecological data, and developing critical thinking and communication skills. This paper will help fulfill all goals by facilitating your critical thinking and introducing your to the primary paleoecological literature.

 

The main idea of the paper is for you to identify some interesting topic in paleoecology, examine and synthesize the current state of the topic, and identify emerging new directions of the field. You have considerable freedom in your approach; for example, you may choose to examine a taxon, a time, a place, an idea, etc. However, you must use primary literature (articles with new data or analyses) and you must be synthetic; i.e., you must combine parts to make a unified whole. The synthesis paper is not simply a summary of the parts and not necessarily a criticism of the papers you read.  Rather, it is a critical approach where you consider the logic, significance, and value of an idea, and where you express and defend an opinion on the matter.

Your opinion should be logical and well supported by the primary literature.

 

The paper will be developed through a multi-stage process. You will 1) develop an initial idea and assemble an initial list of relevant literature, 2) flesh out an outline, 3) write an initial draft and receive feedback on the draft from your peers (i.e., peer review), and 4) incorporate the peer review comments to refine your final paper.

 

Notes on searching the literature

The articles we are reading for class serve as a good jumping off point for some of the main topics within paleoecology, but there are also many paleoecological topics we are not covering in class. Once you’ve identified a paper topic, it can be helpful to find a review of the topic, and use the literature cited list of that paper to dig into the primary literature. Alternatively, you can use the search engine Web of Science to find more recent articles that cite the review article. The librarians or myself can help you if you are unsure about how to search for primary literature. You will need to include a minimum of five citations.

 

• Web of Science and Google Scholar are my own go-to databases
• Some paleo–specific journals:

Quaternary Science Reviews, Quaternary Research, Quaternary International, The Holocene, Paleobiology, Journal of Paleontology, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, + paleo papers in many others!

• Journals with good reviews:

Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, Paleobiology, Quaternary Science Reviews

 

 

Components of the Final Paper

Initial Draft

• Upload a copy of your draft paper to CatCourses; I will send it to your reviewers
• This draft should be a complete draft- your best attempt
• The paper should be 3-8 pages, single spaced
• The Literature Cited section does not count towards this page
  • Cite all sources you use in the appropriate place; use a consistent and complete format for in- text citations and bibliography.
  • Edit your manuscript
  • Include line numbers on your manuscript
  • Draft should be turned in as a pdf, not as a word or pages document
• See the rubric for additional guidance

 

**Template**

 

A guide to writing the final papers

 

 

Introduction

This section should include clear statements about the topic and its importance.

The best papers will clearly identify topic for the paper. The topic will definitely be about some aspect of paleoecology. Also, the importance of the topic will be clearly stated. There will be clear references to citations, both in-line as short literature references (Terry 2010) and at the end in the Literature Cited section.

 

Section Header 1

The body of the paper should be organized into logical sections about the topic. Each section should include text that synthesizes (not just re-states) the literature, with important sub-conclusions identified for each section (Pedersen et al. 2016).

 

Subsection header. There may even be subsections here, depending on how you choose to organize your paper.

 

Section Header 2

Section 2, and subsequent sections, may or may not be included in your paper, depending on how you choose to organize the topic (Gill et al. 2009). Each section should include text that synthesizes (not just re-states) the literature, with important sub-conclusions identified for each section.

 

Subsection header. There may even be subsections here, depending on how you choose to organize your paper.

 

Conclusions

Conclusion(s) are formed through the literature review and clearly stated here. This section may also include statements about gaps in the field that should be filled through new research.

 

[Other requirements]

• Topic must be at least partly about paleoecology
• Minimum of 5 references
• 3-8 pages single spaced
• Add page numbers in the footer region
• Add line numbers on your initial draft. You can keep or remove them for the final draft. This makes it easier for reviewers. In Word, line numbers can be added by going to: Format à Document à Layout à Line Numbers à Add line numbering, continuous.
• Grammar and spelling should be checked carefully

Literature Cited [Note that I’ve added a page break at the end of the conclusions, so that this section goes onto a new page. This section does not count towards the page requirements.]

 

A complete citation here will include the following information at a minimum:

• Last name and initials for authors. If a paper has >5 authors, you may list only the first five authors, followed by et al.
• Year of publication
• Title
• Journal
• Volume (and optionally, the issue)
• Starting page (and optionally, the end page)

 

For example, here is the formatted version for some of the papers we are reading in class.

 

Single author:

Terry RC. 2010. The dead do not lie: using skeletal remains for rapid assessment of historical small-mammal community baselines. Proc. Biol. Sci. 277(1685):1193– 1201

 

Multiple authors:

Gill JL, Williams JW, Jackson S, Lininger K, Robinson G. 2009. Pleistocene Megafaunal Collapse, Novel Plant Communities, and Enhanced Fire Regimes in North America. Science. 326(5956):1100–1103

 

>5 authors:

Pedersen MW, Ruter A, Schweger C, Friebe H, Staff RA, et al. 2016. Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature19085. *Note that this paper has only been published online, so there are no volume numbers. Instead, I am providing the DOI (digital object identifier).

 

Put citations in alphabetical order and add a line break after each one, so that it is easier to read. For the references cited in the template, this is a nice format:

 

Gill JL, Williams JW, Jackson S, Lininger K, Robinson G. 2009. Pleistocene Megafaunal Collapse, Novel Plant Communities, and Enhanced Fire Regimes in North America. Science. 326(5956):1100–1103

 

Pedersen MW, Ruter A, Schweger C, Friebe H, Staff RA, et al. 2016. Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature19085.

 

Terry RC. 2010. The dead do not lie: using skeletal remains for rapid assessment of historical small-mammal community baselines. Proc. Biol. Sci. 277(1685):1193–1201